Niche Fragrance Magazine

Bottega Veneta

Both the relationships between fragrances and those with friends can teach us a lot, as I found out this last week. I mentioned before the joys of having like-minded perfumisters and perfumsistas to chat to about this obsession with Obsession and craving for Chaos. This month one of mine tipped me off to a delicacy I simply had to try: Mauboussin de Mauboussin.

I made a small financial investment (very small – this is not expensive) and the three-sided pyramidal bottle is now on my dresser. My friend Pia from Olfiction had been the catalyst for this, as she felt there was a similarity between Mauboussin and Femme de Rochas, a classic plum and leather chypre. I have a great fondness for chypres, and leather ones in particular, treasuring my tiny bottle of vintage Femme extrait. Even though the top notes of my bottle are starting to ‘turn’ to the burnt, hairspray-like sharpness of damage, the heart and base are still beautiful and I have vowed to wear this rapidly-fading beauty as much as possible while it still glows like a plum-coloured lantern.KEEP ON READING

All exclusive lines need a good leather on which to hang their hat. The Chanel Les Esclusifs have their famous Cuir de Russie, the Dior Privee their Cuir Cannage, and now Hermessence by Hermes have theirs: Cuir d’Ange. Cuir d’Ange, meaning Angel Skin, is the tenth, and probably Jean-Claude Ellena’s last contribution to the exclusive Hermessence line by Hermes.

And, wow, it’s a good one.

It’s a delicate, translucent leather consisting of a series of cool grey and blue notes – violet, hawthorn, heliotrope, maybe some unlisted iris – all daubed on as if in a watercolor. There is something cool and hollowed-out about the leather, as if a note of air or water has been floated up through the scent. It feels somehow anisic or salty. I would even go so far as to say vegetal or savory, rather than sweet. This could be the violet, although it smells like no other violet I’ve ever smelled before. Personally, I think violet has a tendency to ride roughshod over every other note in a composition, and therefore, to see such a denatured, subtle, almost salted version of the note here is both a surprise and a pleasure.KEEP ON READING

The views, opinions, findings, conclusions and recommendations shown in the articles of FragranceDaily.com are solely those of the authors of those articles and do not necessarily reflect the views, policy or position of the Essenza Nobile® GmbH or any affiliated brands and should not be attributed to any of them.